The long-running murder trial of Jodi Arias entered its endgame Friday in Phoenix as her defense attorney repeatedly insisted that her actions in June 2008 were completely inconsistent with a charge of premeditated murder. “It doesn’t make any sense,” attorney Kirk Nurmi said over and over, that she would keep a receipt for a gas can if she was on a “covert mission,” or that she would take photographs of boyfriend Travis Alexander in the shower with his back turned if she planned to kill him. Nurmi opened by saying this case was about “fear, love, sex, lies and dirty little secrets … each one of these aspects of the human condition played a prominent role in the relationship that Jodi Arias had with Travis Alexander.” Nurmi actually drew a smile from the defendant when he said the case was not about “whether or not you like Jodi Arias — nine days out of 10, I don’t like Jodi Arias.” Arias claims she killed Alexander in self-defense, though she stabbed him 27 times, slashed his throat and shot him in the temple. Prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder conviction that could bring the death penalty. Jurors also have the option of second-degree murder, punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison, or manslaughter, which carries a sentence of seven to 21 years. After Nurmi’s close, prosecutor Juan Martinez will get a second opportunity to make closing arguments.

The Syrian opposition accused the government Friday of a massacre of at least 50 people in a Sunni village killed with guns, knives and blunt objects. In amateur video, the bodies of at least seven men and boys are seen strewn in pools of blood in front of a house as women weep around them in the coastal village of Bayda. “Don’t sleep, don’t move,” one woman sobs, leaning over to touch one of the men, who appears to be dead. Bayda is dominated by Sunni Muslims, like the rebel movement, but is located in the heartland of the Shiite Alawite sect, to which President Bashar Assad belongs. Fighting broke out in Bayda early Thursday, and in the afternoon, Syrian troops backed by gunmen from nearby Alawite villages swept into the village, torching homes and using guns, knives and blunt objects to kill people in the streets, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria’s state news agency said late Thursday that the army conducted a raid in Bayda, killing several “terrorists” and seizing machine guns, automatic rifles and other weapons.

The lead Pakistani prosecutor in the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the terrorist attack in Mumbai was gunned down Friday as he drove from his home in Islamabad to a court in Rawalpindi. Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali was hit by 13 bullets in the head, shoulder and chest, and when he lost control of his car he ran over a woman passing by and killed her, police said. His bodyguard returned fire and is believed to have wounded one of the attackers. A motive for Ali’s killing was unclear, but suspicion fell on militant groups he has opposed in his work as a prosecutor, including the Taliban. The shooting comes as Pakistan prepares for nationwide elections on May 11, with the Taliban trying to disrupt them with shooting and bombing attacks on candidates. In Karachi on Friday, gunmen killed an anti-Taliban candidate and his 6-year-old son.

U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate down to a four-year low of 7.5 percent — news that drove the Dow Jones industrial average above 15,000 for the first time ever. A Labor Department report Friday also revised upward its estimate of job gains in February and March by a combined 114,000, saying employers added 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March. “This is a good report,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “There’s a lot of strength. … It’s good for the economy. It’s good for people’s income.” The only sectors of the economy that cut jobs were construction and government, while hotels and restaurants added 45,000 jobs, education and health services 44,000, temp firms 31,000, retail 29,000 and professional and technical services 23,000.

How dreary is the weather in Washington? So dreary that when the sun broke out Friday, a small private school in Bellingham canceled classes and declared a “sun day.” “SCHOOL CANCELLED DUE TO GREAT WEATHER! WAHOOO!” the Bellingham Christian School announced on its website to its 205 students. “Yeah! It’s a Sun Day today and everyone gets the day off from school.” Principal Bomb Sampson said, “Kids just love the anticipation of sitting around to see if school is canceled when it snows. You know, we haven’t had any snow days, so I thought, how fun would it be to create that anticipation for kids when it’s nice out?”

The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler.

In a video clip recorded by a student, a psychology instructor at Orange Coast College told her class that the election of Donald Trump was “an act of terrorism” – prompting an official complaint from the school’s Republican Club.